For mom, hope for son

Stem cell rule offers great expectations

DOUGLAS JORDANSpecial to The Record

Published Friday, March 13, 2009

Jason Armitage, 18, has been paralyzed since he was 7 years old, when he was injured playing soccer.

For almost all the time since, his mother, Faye Armitage, has been a crusader for stem cell research that she hopes will help people like her son. And like other supporters of stem cell research, she was elated this week with President Barack Obama's decision to reverse the Bush administration's federal funding limits on embryonic stem cell research.

"Any hope we had was dormant for the last eight years," she said Thursday. "This is what we've been working for, and to say I'm excited is an understatement. It has been a long road."

Initially paralyzed from the nose down, Jason has regained some use of his face and hands, thanks to therapy and treatment.

He can speak, but very slowly. His mother usually ends up translating.

Smiling broadly, he said he was extremely happy about Obama's decision.

"The United States has always been the leader in innovative and cutting-edge research," Faye Armitage said. "We have the resources to make amazing advances in this area. So, this is a huge victory.

"Rather than throwing these cells away, we can now save lives with them," she said. "Every day that this research was on hold, 4,000 people died that might have been helped."

Jason lives with his mother and sisters in Fruit Cove, and looks forward to being able to live without the physical restrictions he has now.

In many ways, he's like any teenage kid. He enjoys PlayStation (his favorites are NBA 2K9 and Madden NFL), and loves the Jacksonville Jaguars, L.A. Lakers and Florida Gators. He wears the latest fashions, and has the same spiky haircut many teens wear.

He even has tattoos. One, on his left upper biceps, has the Superman "S" logo, and reads: "Man of Steel, RIP C.R.," a homage to his hero, Christopher Reeve. On his left forearm, he has the names of his mother and four sisters emblazoned in script.

But it is the tattoo on his right forearm that he is most proud of. In Chinese characters, it reads "Never give up hope."

The principle behind stem-cell treatments involves replacing diseased, injured or dead cells with healthy, living ones that will take over the functions of those that have been lost. These healthy cells become a permanent part of the body, dividing and reproducing themselves and replacing sick tissue and restoring lost functions.

The use of stem-cells could have potential to cure a large number of afflictions, including cancer, diabetes, heart disease, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, spinal cord injury, osteoporosis, ALS, multiple sclerosis, and liver and kidney diseases.

Faye Armitage's crusade has taken her to Tallahassee, Washington, D.C., and all over the world. In 2008, she ran for Congress, losing to U.S. Rep. John Mica, the incumbent.

"This decision is monumental," she said. "We were very optimistic when Obama won the election, because he had been an advocate of this research."

She said she was a bit disheartened when it wasn't one of his very first presidential actions.

"When he didn't do it immediately, I was a little worried that he might back off the issue," she said. "The concern was that he would have succumbed to political pressure."

Armitage fights back tears when she talks about what this research could mean, not just for Jason, but for millions of people all over the world.

"This year, we have hope," she said. "Actually, I don't like to use the word hope. That word is too vague, and sounds like something that may never be realized. I prefer the word expectation. This decision opens so many more doors to expectation, not just hope. We now can realistically look forward to living in a world where people will not have to end up in wheelchairs ever again."